And Peggy

72

Friday (Christmas Eve):

"Meg, come on! Eliza and I will leave without you!" Lia called to me from downstairs. I walked down the steps. Lia was waiting at the bottom for me.

"Aren't you in the Christmas spirit?" I laughed noticing her sweater and sparkly Santa hat.

"Meg, it's Christmas Eve! Now come on!" She grabbed my wrist and pulled me to the car. "Can you sit with me in the back?"

I nodded opening her car door.

"You two ready?" Eliza asked turning to us.

"Yes, now step on it! We need to make these cookies!" Lia said. Someone was very impatient.

"Lia, we have all day!" I said.

"No we don't! We have to be in bed by 9:30, or Santa won't come! I cant risk him skipping our house because we're still making cookies!" She complained.

"Cornelia, we'll have plenty of time." Eliza assured her. "I'll make sure of it."

"Oh alright."

Once we were at the store. Lia grabbed a cart and ran through the aisles looking for the ingredients. When Eliza and I finally found her, she had nothing but chocolate chips and sprinkles in her cart. "Uh, what goes in cookies again?"

Eliza giggled grabbing the cart. "Here, I'll show you."

"Can you push me around the store?" Lia asked tilting her head.

"Hop in."

Lia hoped into the basket and looked to me. "You wouldn't have done this."

"Oh really? I guess I can just not give you your Christmas present."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'll be good! I won't say it again!" She pleaded.

"Oh, alright."

"Yay! Thanks, Meg!" She said grinning ear to ear.

Eliza pushed the cart and got everything we needed. Once everything was paid for, we got in the car and hurried home. As soon as we pulled into the driveway, Lia was already grabbing the bags.

Lia raced into the kitchen. "Time for cookies!" She took out all of the ingredients and sat at the kitchen counter on her iPad.

"Aren't you helping?" Eliza asked.

"Yeah with decorating."

"Well what are you doing now that you can't help?" I asked as I helped Eliza stir the cookie dough.

"Watching videos I shouldn't be watching."

"Lia, be honest."

"Texting Alex." She smiled widely. "He's FaceTiming me!" She answered. "Alex!"

"Hi, Cornelia."

"Want to say hi to Eliza and Peggy?"

"Uh, sure."

Lia walked over to us and set her iPad on the counter. "There ya go!"

"Hey!"

"Hi, Alexander." Eliza smiled.

I continued mixing. I wasn't going to stop making cookies for Alex! Maria maybe. Alex? Get lost.

"Where's my Peggy?" He asked.

I looked up. "Making cookies."

"Fun."

"Well. I have to go help. Bye!" Lia said before hanging up. "Now what were we doing?"

"Making your favorite cookies." I said tapping her nose.

"Chocolate chip! Yes!"

"Why are you helping all of a sudden?" Eliza asked as she started working on the sugar cookies.

"Duh, because Alex isn't talking to me."

"Why do you talk to him so much? Don't worry. I'm not jealous."

"I guess it's because he is just so caring and protective. Like an older brother who wants to spend time with me."

"The boys spend plenty of time with you."

"Doing what they want."

"Well why don't you like John?"

"Like at all." I added.

"I don't know. He's annoying."

"And Alexander isn't?" Eliza laughed.

"He is, but in a good way. Besides, John doesn't care about me. Whenever I'm over his house to play with Mary, he just ignores me. Whenever he's over here, he's all on top of me."

"At least he never broke your heart." I mumbled.

Eliza put her hand on my shoulder.  "But you're best friends now, right?"

"Yeah. But it still happened." Months later and that day would forever haunt me.

A few hours later, Eliza, Lia, and I were having a Christmas movie marathon. We wrapped up in blankets, drank homemade hot chocolate, and ate our cookies.

"You couldn't have waited until I got home?" Angelica asked seeing us.

"Nope." Lia said. "But you can come watch with us now. You can even pick the next movie!"

Angelica smiled and sat down next to Eliza.

After a few movies and "A Night Before Christmas", we had to go to sleep because it was 9:30. Lia jumped up on my bed. "Good night, Meg. I love you!"

"I love you too, Lia. Good night."

"Hurry up and get to sleep! I don't want Santa skipping us just because you aren't asleep!"